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Thursday, June 9, 2011

M. F. Husain(Maqbool Fida Husain), the legendary Indian painter, popularly known as 'Picasso of India', died on 8-06-2011 at the age of 95. He died at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, where he was admitted.

Hussain was once a member of Rajya Sabha and had been awarded with nation's second highest award Padma Vibhushan. At the recent Bonham's auctions his paintings fetched the highest sum for any Indian artist, i.e, Rs 2.32 crore!!! He was living in self-exile since 2006 following a series of legal cases and death threats against him over his paintings depicting Hindu goddesses in nude. He accepted Qatari citizenship in 2010.
Hussain was born in Pandharpur in Maharashtra on September 17, 1915. In 1955, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree. In 1967, he made his first film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. It was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and won a Golden Bear.
Husain was a special invitee along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1971. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.

A painting by Husain

He also produced and directed a few movies, including Gaja Gamini with his favourite Madhuri Dixit who was the subject of a series of his paintings which he signed as Fida.
Husain's autobiography was being made into a movie tentatively titled The Making of the Painter, starring Shreyas Talpade as the young Husain.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

YouTube has launched 'YouTube Box Office', an exclusive online channel, which will showcase a blockbuster movie free of cost every month. The service will begin with Yash Raj Films 'Band Baaja Baaraat’. The interesting thing is that only Indian users can access the channel and will be blocked for users in other countries. Intel is the exclusive presenting sponsor for the channel.
In short, the YouTube Box Office channel provides the consumers an opportunity to view premium, high quality movies on their PCs without spending a penny. These Bollywood movies come in full HD (1080p) and from anywhere – you don’t need a credit card, movies never expire as well. What all you need is a decent Internet connection and a browser with Flash player.
The Box Office channel is sponsored by Intel and, unlike any other video on YouTube, these movies include 15-second video ads that play after every 10 minutes of the movie. Thus, a 2-hour long movie (Indian films are often longer) can easily have 10-12 ad breaks and you cannot skip, pause or hide these ads. Good for advertisers and the viewers won’t necessarily mind these short ads.
YouTube said that to bring more of such premium content, it will collaborate with its partners in India on a revenue share basis.